The present invention is directed to a device and method for controlling the filling of a container with flat elements like folded box blanks which have been made in a folder-gluer.
A process and device for filling a container or carton with flat blanks, such as folded box blanks, has had several embodiments which are disclosed by Swiss Pat. No. 630,860, French Pat. No. 2,341,508 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,241,559. As disclosed in the Swiss patent, a stack of the box blanks are piled into a container to be on an edge of the box blank and the container is shifted during the piling-up of the blanks in the container. It is also possible to control the shifting of the container as the blanks are piled therein by the thickness of the blanks, which are being piled up as disclosed by the French patent. It has been proposed to continuously and regularly shift the container. This proposal certainly suits an uninterrupted piling-up of the sheets but could not be appropriate for the piling-up of a predetermined number of flat elements with several plies or thicknesses such as found with folded box blanks.
The above-mentioned devices have amongst other things the drawback not to be continuously checked with regard to the arriving sheets. On the other hand, in both of the above-mentioned cases, the shifting of the container occurs through the piling-up of the elements. It is therefore obvious that the shifting of the container which has one or two piles of piled-up elements will be shifted more easily than one that has had many more piles or layers of elements. The force acting on the filling device will increase and might disturb its operation. Moreover, as the operator constantly moves from the location of the empty container to a location of the full container which is to be removed, the known devices are inconvenient.